Making the healthy choice the easy choice

Diets to Help Manage Specific Health Issues

Do you suffer from obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease or diabetes? Has your doctor recommended you follow a certain diet but don’t know how to start? Or you have started the recommended diet and are sick of eating the same flavorless meals? To help you learn about and follow a specific diet, we have organized some information on specific diets as well as tips on how to follow them, plus links to helpful websites and recipes.

** Always consult your Medical Doctor or a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist before following any type of diet or meal plan.

To Lose Weight

Diet to follow:

The best way to lose weight is to reduce the number of calories you eat and increase the number of calories you burn through physical activity/exercise.

Start off by creating a daily food log. Keep track of what and how much you eat to see which areas you can improve upon. For a free daily food and activity log, try the USDA Supertracker.

Don’t drink your calories. Cut out fruit juices and sodas. Switch to low- or no-calorie drink options such as plain or flavored waters and seltzers. Try these delicious flavored water recipes. Vegetable juices such as low sodium V8 juice is a healthy low calorie option. Although diet drinks such as soda do not have any calories are not recommended. They contain toxic substances such as aspartame and caramel coloring and they add no nutritional value.

Pay attention to portion size. Today’s meals are often served in portions that are larger than we need. To find the right portion size for you, try the WebMD Portion Size Guide.

People often have more effective weight loss when they join support groups such as Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig.

If you want to follow a specific diet, the DASH (Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension) Diet is recommended. The DASH diet focuses mainly on consuming non-processed foods. It is high in vegetables and fruits, contains whole grains, low fat or nonfat dairy foods, lean meats, fish and poultry, nuts, seeds and legumes and a limited amount of fats and sweets. Go to Dash Diet.

To Lower Your Cholesterol

If you want to follow a specific diet, the Mediterranean diet is recommended. It is based off of plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, legumes and whole grains. This type of diet can help to control weight, blood pressure and cholesterol. Try searching Healthy Mediterranean Recipes

To Lower Your Blood Pressure

Diet to follow:

Low Sodium Diet: Stay away from foods that are known to be high in sodium such as frozen premade meals, canned soups, canned vegetables, fast food, chips and crackers, breads, deli meats, cheese, and canned beans (be sure to rinse them before use). Limit processed foods that come in boxes and bags. Do not add extra salt to your food, or try a salt substitute such as a potassium-based salt.

DASH Diet: For more information on this diet refer to the Heart Healthy diet section above.

To Manage Your Diabetes

Diet to follow:

Follow a diet with a low glycemic index. Foods with a low glycemic index do not cause a spike in your blood sugar. They are usually high in fiber. An example of a food with a low glycemic index is an apple. An example of a food with a high glycemic index is orange juice.

Diets to Help Manage Specific Health Issues

Mason Jar Salads

Here is the second installment of the healthy eating videos prepared for us by a team of Yale-New Haven Hospital dietetic interns. Watch this quick video to learn how to prepare a healthy and delicious mason jar salad. Be sure to share this video with others!